Seasons Of The Moon
The Jewish Year seen through its months
====================================
Cheshvan/Kislev 5761
October 30, 2000 - December 26, 2000
====================================
This publication is available in HTML at
http://www.ohr.org.il/seasons/5761/cheshvan.htm
====================================
LIGHT AND ENLIGHTENMENT
A holy light burns in the lights of Chanuka. A light as old as the
world itself. We may not use the Chanuka lights to illuminate our
homes. Their radiance may not be used for any practical purpose at
all. We may only look into the light itself. We may only gaze into
its depths.
But why can't we use the lights of Chanuka for some other sacred
purpose? Why can't we use their glow to read words of Torah, for
example? What sets aside the Chanuka lights from every other worldly
light? Why may we only gaze into the light itself -- and what are we
supposed to see there?
SEEING THE LIGHT
Darkness. You turn on a light. You can look at light in two ways.
Firstly, your surroundings are illuminated. You can see what's around
you. Second, you can see the light itself, the source of
illumination. And when you look into the light -- into the source --
the world that surrounds you recedes from view.
When we look at our surroundings, our perception of the light is
second-hand, reflected. It's "en-lightenment" -- but it's not the
light itself. When we look at the light itself, we see the source.
We perceive the light, not as a reflection, but the thing itself. We
know of the light's existence because we see the light. We don't need
it's reflection to give us evidence of its existence.
There are two words in Hebrew that are spelled identically. They have
different vowels, but their letters are the same. One is the word for
"proof" (rye-ah) and the other is the word for "sight" (ree-ah).
These two words express these two aspects of light: Rye-ah, proof, is
the reflection of the light, the verification that the light exists by
its illumination of our surroundings. Ree-ah, sight, is seeing the
source. When you look at the source, you don't need proof. You don't
need "en-lightenment." You are looking at the light itself.
INTO THE LIGHT
In the Psalms, King David writes "For with You is the source of life.
In Your light do we see light." (Tehilim 36) Because the Creator is
the source of life, His light cannot be perceived by reflection. Only
in His "light do we see light." Not in His reflection. If we want to
see His reflection in this world, if we want a proof of the existence
of the light -- a rye-ah -- we could look at the way His light
illuminates this world. We will find evidence of His Hand. Of His
light. We will find evidence in the outrageous improbability of a "
cosmic soup" which just happens to spawn Life. We will find evidence
of His light in the highly unhistorical history of the Jewish People.
We will find direct evidence of His light in an unbroken chain back to
Sinai. Yes, we will find evidence of the light. We will find proof
of its existence, a rye-ah. But we will not see the light itself.
A LIGHT WHICH IS HIDDEN
At the beginning of time, there shone a unique light called the Ohr
Haganuz -- the Hidden Light. With this light you could see from one
end of the Creation to the other. Even though the Creator hid away
the Ohr Haganuz after the first thirty-six hours of Creation, there
are times when you can still catch glimpses of its hidden glow...
On the first night of Chanuka, we light one candle; on the second
night two. Thus after two nights, we have lit three candles. If you
continue this calculation, you will find that the total number of
candles that we light on Chanuka is thirty-six. The thirty-six lights
of Chanuka correspond to the thirty-six hours during which the Ohr
Haganuz shone.
BLINDED BY THE LIGHT
"For with You is the source of life. In Your light do we see light."
We may not use the lights of Chanuka for any purpose, however holy,
for "...with You is the source of life." When we look into the lights
of Chanuka we are looking to the Source of life itself. For "In Your
light do we see light." We connect to the Source of life, not through
its reflected light, not through evidence and proof, not through rye-
ah, but rather through ree-ah, through gazing directly into the light.
And when we do that, this world of reflection vanishes from our sight.
THE LIGHT IN EXILE
Chanuka, the festival of light, represents the freedom from an exile.
The Exile of ancient Greece. Unique among the exiles which the Jewish
People have suffered, the Exile of Greece was the only exile in which
the Jewish People never left their land. And yet an exile it still
was. It was the exile of the Light. The wisdom of the Torah was
exiled by Greek philosophy.
To the ancient Greeks, what is beyond the mind of man does not exist.
The Greek view of the world is a world of evidence, of rye-ah, of
proof. It is a world of reflected light alone. A world of en-
lightenment. The Greek eye is blind to a source that is brighter than
the eye of man can bear. Thus it grasps the reflection as being the
source. What I can see, exists. Beyond that, beyond concrete
evidence, in that place where the human eye cannot penetrate, there
can exist nothing. The Greeks engaged the Sages of the Talmud over
and over again, challenging them to give incontrovertible evidence for
the efficacy of the Torah. Prove to us, they said that brit mila
causes some empirical improvement in a person; that keeping Shabbat
changes someone, something. The Sages could not give these proofs.
Not because of any lacking in the Torah, but because the Greeks
misunderstood the nature of the Torah itself.
If we wanted to prove the efficacy of an antibiotic, we could go to a
laboratory, take a blood sample and analyze it empirically. We could
evaluate how many white blood cells there were, how many red. We
could take finite measurements which would lead to empirical
conclusions. There is, however, no empirical measurement for a
mitzva. The Torah is lacking in empirical proofs because it is not a
description of that which already exists. It is the source of that
which is to be. It depicts an existence which has yet to be. It is
the source, not the outcome. It is the light, not its reflection.
The Torah doesn't conform to Greek thought. It doesn't observe the
world. It is the source of the world. It is not a reflection of the
light. It is the light itself.
When you look into the light all you can see is the light. When you
look into the light itself, into the Source of life, the empirical
realities of this world, the reflections of the light, pale and fade,
for we are gazing far above and beyond to the hidden Source of life
itself.
"For with You is the source of life. In Your light do we see light."
Sources:
* Tehillim 36
* Rashi on Bereshet 1:4
* Pachad Yitzchak, Essays on Chanuka, Essay 9/7
=========================================
BLINDED BY THE LIGHT
Eyes that define the world
Blind the world
With dark circles spun
in narrow corridors.
Darkly
they squint at other eyes
lifted to the Light,
to the hills
following the footsteps
of angels.
================================
The publication of Seasons Of The Moon was made possible by
the generosity of Jill Sinclair and Trevor Horn
================================
If you like this e-mail please share it with a friend.
================================
This Publication contains words of Torah.
Please treat it with due respect.
================================
Do you know about ALL of Ohr Somayach's e-mail lists?
Ohrnet, Torah Weekly, Parsha Q&A, Ask the Rabbi, The Weekly
Daf, Seasons of the Moon, OS-Special, Judaismo, Judaismo-p,
Light Lines, hrnews, Simcha, OS-Alum.
To subscribe, write to info@ohr.org.il
================================
If you want to unsubscribe from this list, send an e-mail to:
unsubscribe-Month@lists.virtualjerusalem.com (no subject, no body)
================================
Written and Compiled by Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair
General Editor: Rabbi Moshe Newman
Production Design: Michael Treblow
================================
Ohr Somayach International
22 Shimon Hatzadik Street, POB 18103
Jerusalem 91180, Israel
Tel: 972-2-581-0315 Fax: 972-2-581-2890
E-Mail: info@ohr.org.il Home Page: http://www.ohr.org.il
================================
(C) 2000 Ohr Somayach International - All rights reserved.
This publication may be distributed to
another person intact without prior
permission. We also encourage you to
include this material in other publications,
such as synagogue newsletters. However, we
ask that you contact us beforehand for
permission, and then send us a sample issue.